Fame, Fate, and the First Kiss
By: Kasie West
Expected Publication: February 5th 2019 by HarperTeen
384 pages
Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary
Source: Publisher via Edelweiss (Thank you!!)
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Goodreads description--Lacey Barnes has dreamt of being in a movie for as long as she can remember. However, while her dream did include working alongside the hottest actor in Hollywood, it didn’t involve having to finish up her senior year of high school at the same time she was getting her big break. Although that is nothing compared to Donavan, the straight-laced student her father hires to tutor her, who is a full-on nightmare.
As Lacey struggles to juggle her burgeoning career, some on-set sabotage, and an off-screen romance with the unlikeliest of leading men, she quickly learns that sometimes the best stories happen when you go off script.
I love when Kasie West takes a character from a previous book and makes that character the main character of another book. I do wish these were listed as a series though even though each book is perfectly capable of standing on its own. But it would just give me an immediate heads up that these characters are related and should be familiar. In this case, Lacey was a side character in Abby and Cooper's story, Love, Life, and the List.
Despite being a big Kasie West fan, I wasn't pulled in to Fame, Fate, and the First Kiss from page one like I usually am. I think that's likely due to not being able to relate to a character staring in a movie. Granted that's not all Lacey is and knowing Kasie West's prior work kept me reading and it wasn't too long before I was cruising along just fine.
As I said, it was hard for me to relate to Lacey's situation on a movie set as a lead actress. She was a likable character for me, yet very different from myself. Her director calls her spunky at one point and I think that's a great way to describe her. She's flirtatious and almost boisterous without being annoying. I enjoyed reading someone so different from myself. I appreciated that her problems were both internal and external. She had to deal with trying to connect as an actress with a costar that she's not exactly attracted to. She actually has to navigate the waters of her first real crush. She also struggles with her dad's support (or lack thereof) for her chosen career. But then there are things to deal with such as the chemistry being missing with her costar isn't entirely her fault as well as someone seems to be sabotaging her and trying to make her look bad on set.
From a plot standpoint, I appreciated that Lacey wasn't trying to hook up with Grant. I liked that Kasie West gave several of the characters reason to plot against Lacey. I was actually surprised with how that turned out. I also appreciated that Donovan didn't end up writing some scathing review of Lacey's movie.
Donovan was a fun character, although there were times when I still wished I knew more about him. Lacey could be self-centered at times and she would realize that she didn't know little things about Donovan which meant that the reader doesn't know those things either. He definitely seemed contradictory at times. He was uptight yet relaxed. But I guess we can all be a bit contradictory in real life as well.
Fame, Fate, and the First Kiss was a fun read. This won't go down as my all-time favorite Kasie West book, but it was enjoyable throughout. Fame, Fate, and the First Kiss gets 3.5 Stars. Have you read Fame, Fate, and the First Kiss? What did you think? Let me know!
